My DVD Player won't play anything!

[Santos]

I have a Phillips DVD622 which recently began to freeze occasionally during play which I put down to rented DVD movies being scratched. Now it won't play anything - DVD, VCD, CD or even the DVD cleaning disk I bought to try and solve the problem.
Each time I insert a disk it attempts to read it about 6 times then spits it out. I took the case off and the laser appears fine both in terms of the light source and the positioning mechanism, the disk also seems to spin normally and there appears nothing untoward with the printed circuitry from visual inspection.
The unit is about two years old and has been used to play an average of 1 to 2 movies per week.
Could anybody offer some advice before I chuck it and save up the fifty quid for a Cyberhomes?
Cheers

[louthewiz]

Son save yourself the pain and buy a panasonic s35 which I just got(Ive always used panasonic) it plays EVERYTHING you can throw at it..Also try a laser lens cleaner it may be just dirt...

[The village idiot]

Sound more like a drive problem, like something wrong with the spindle motor. Does it have a standard IDE connection for the drive? If it does you could MAYBE replace the drive, but at the price of good machines, it almost doesn't make sense. I would very likely gut it to make a case for a PVR or something like that. But that is just me.

[RabidDog]

8) email phillips , they might offer some suggestion. Sounds dead to me. Next time get some sort of insurance or buy from johnlewis.com three year Gtee free.

[Roundabout]

Sounds like the typical weak laser. Even though the laser is solid state, it will degrade over time and output will be less. Depending on the quality of the materials used, it may degrade fast. The only recommendation I can make (after repairing many CD/DVD players) is to try cleaning the lens with a q-tip (I've given this advice several times, sometimes it works, sometimes not - if it doesn't work at all there's nothing to lose trying). Take a dry q-tip and wipe across the lens and rotate the swab while wiping. If there is dust (doesn't take much, you may not see it with eyes alone) or smog/film on the lens it should remove it. If that doesn't work, try the same thing while using isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol, or use denatured alcohol if you can get your hands on it, it is less likely to leave residue. Then use the dry end to wipe the lens again. Wipe fairly gently to avoid damaging the lens/focus assembly. It will move around a little while wiping, this is OK as long as you don't apply too much pressure. Give it a try and see what happens. One more thing you can try is to blow compressed air (available in cans) at the lens and laser assembly to dislodge and remove any dust that may have gotten down inside the laser pickup assy. and settled on the prism and photodiode. Good luck! If this doesn't work, the laser output is probably too low to read the disc reflectivity.